Palm Trees

Jeret Peterson Overcomes Addiction to Make Third Olympics

After losing his sister to a drunk driver, being sexually abused, witnessing his roommate commit suicide, and being sent home from the 2006 Olympics because of an alcohol-fueled bar fight, Jeret "Speedy" Peterson is well acquainted with trouble. But now he is clean and sober, and has made his third U.S. Olympic team. David Byrd of VOA News writes that the freestyle aerials skier hopes his signature "Hurricane" move will blow away the judges in Vancouver.

Peterson’s sister was killed by a drunk driver when he was just five years old; in 2003 he revealed that he was a victim of sexual abuse by a person he refuses to name; in 2005, just a few months before the Turin Games, Peterson saw his roommate, Trevor "Trey" Fernald, shoot and kill himself, a tragedy that lead him to turn to alcohol.

"I didn't really feel like saying 'poor me, this happened to me.' No. I had the choice to make the situation what it was, and rather than going to counseling I was hanging out with Bud Light [beer] and Jack Daniels [whiskey]," said Peterson.

At the 2006 Turin Olympics, Peterson attempted the Hurricane in the finals and lost a medal because he missed it. After a night of post-competition partying in the Italian city, Peterson and his best friend from Boise, Idaho got into a bar fight. The police came and the U.S. Olympic Committee sent Peterson home early.

The now 28-year-old Peterson says he learned some valuable lessons from his time in Turin.

"The person that I am now, versus the person that I was back then—you could not pay me $10 million to go back to that person," he said. "I was young, I was cocky, I thought I had already won that gold medal before I even jumped. And I got spanked hard. It's something that I am glad that I did not win, because I would not be the person that I am now."

After being inundated with critical e-mails and letters because of the incident in Turin, Peterson decided to step away from the sport. "I think the big thing is that I hit rock bottom," said Peterson. "And that's the thing that they say every alcoholic, every addict, every person with an issue like that has to do. And I was pretty fortunate that my rock bottom did not cost me my life and did not cost anybody else's life, and I am still able to do what I love."

When he returned to competition last season, Peterson won the second World Cup meet that he entered. He finished sixth in a World Cup event at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics venue and eighth at the World Championships.

"I have always given 110% to anything I do," he said. "But I also feel that a big part of being successful is being able to walk away. Leaving things at the office, if you will. And that's exactly what I needed to do. I really wanted to focus on many other things in my life,” he said.

In December, Peterson landed a pair of quadruple twisting jumps at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, qualifying him for the U.S. Olympic team. The Vancouver Games will be his third consecutive Olympics.